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Sign upPeople behind the desk: Moroder, Farina, Pulga, Giombini and other architects of sound.
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February 1980: “American Gigolo” soundtrack, producer Moroder. Debbie Harry wrote the lyric in one Chateau Marmont evening. #1 Billboard for 6 weeks, Billboard #1 single of 1980, 6M copies. Bernard Edwards of Chic on live bass.
January 1984: Pete Waterman, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken open PWL Studios on Borough High Street. In six years - 44 UK #1s, 100+ top-40 hits and 120M records sold. Conveyor method: a single a week, £25-40K each. In August 1988, 15 SAW tracks sat in the UK top-40 at once. The trio split in 1991.
Trevor Horn was born 15 July 1949 in County Durham. By 2024 - 34 UK #1s, 3 Grammys and 9 Ivor Novellos. From Buggles' “Video Killed the Radio Star” (1979) through ABC, ZTT with Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Seal's “Kiss from a Rose” (1994). The “studio as instrument” method shaped 80s production.
June 1986: Moroder and Tom Whitlock write a ballad for “Top Gun”. Moroder first offered it to Donna Summer and Linda Ronstadt - both said no. Third pick - Terri Nunn of Berlin at $40,000. By September - Billboard and UK #1, soundtrack 9M copies. 1987 Oscar - Moroder's third. Berlin fell apart in 1987.
Musicland Studios ran from 1969 to 1992 in the basement of Munich's Arabella hotel - no windows, no daylight. Moroder cut Donna Summer, Queen, the Stones and Led Zeppelin here. And in 1977 he invented Moog↔MC-8 CV/Gate sync here - the MIDI prototype, ten years early.
July 1977: Donna Summer at Musicland. 36 hours of tracking, 6,000 Deutschmarks, the whole backing built on one Moog Modular. Brian Eno will hear it in Berlin and tell Bowie: “The next fifteen years are going to sound like this”. The first all-electronic disco #1.
One of the main Italo Disco producers - the man who gave the world "I Like Chopin" and built the sound of the genre's melancholy side.
Giorgio Moroder - the South Tyrolean Italian who invented the language of electronic dance music. Donna Summer, three Oscars, the sequencer bass, and a comeback with Daft Punk.
How to become a producer in Italo Disco aesthetics. Gear, synth emulations, classic track analysis, first exercises, mixing, release.
One of the most prolific yet little-known Italo Disco producers - the man who wrote dozens of hits but stayed in the shadows.
The secret world of Italo Disco's invisible voices - who was actually singing in the hits we still enjoy today.
A portrait of one of Italo Disco's key producers - the man who wrote hits for Baltimora, Ken Laszlo, and dozens of other artists.
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